Lost
by Elle Aitch
Summary: AU. After a terrible accident in the Fenton's lab, Danny is presumed dead by his family and friends; however, it turns out that he's still alive and is now trapped within the Ghost Zone.  Will Danny be able to find his way home before it's too late?
1. Chapter 1:  Here Lies Danny Fenton

**Chapter One: Here Lies Danny Fenton**

**Disclaimer: Remember that Butch Hartman cartoon about a half-ghost kid that had a billionaire cheese head as his arch nemesis? No? Sigh. Well, go watch it. And when you finish each episode, kindly observe that my name does not appear anywhere in those credits 'cause I totally don't own it or any of the characters.**

Fourteen-year old Danny Fenton stood before the empty hole in the wall, his sapphire eyes regarding it warily.

"Come on, Danny, it'll be fun," urged his friend Sam, her violet eyes gleaming as she smiled encouragingly. "A gateway to the ghost world. Who knows what kind of super awesome things lie on the other side?"

"All that's on the other side of that gateway is a hole in the wall," Danny said. It had been just one day ago when his parents had called him downstairs to show off their latest invention, the "Fenton Ghost Portal!," only for their spirits to be crushed when the machine failed to so much as give a whir or a spark. For as long as Danny could remember his parents had been obsessed with ghosts, even though there was no proof that they actually existed outside of those lame EVPs and crappy, static filled videos. No matter how much he watched or listened to their recordings, Danny could never make out anything remotely ghost-like about them, and neither he nor his sister Jazz had the same obsession with ghosts that his parents had developed.

Their ghost obsession was also the reason they had moved to Amity Park a few years ago. Supposedly the most haunted place in the United States, Amity Park had more unexplained cold spots, strange weather patterns and creepy buildings than a horror movie, and while both Danny and Jazz had initially dreaded yet another move because of their crazy parents, Danny had ended up meeting the two people who had quickly become his best friends, Tucker Foley and Samantha (or Sam, as Danny had quickly learned she preferred to be called) Manson. The three of them were all social outcasts—Sam was an ultra recycle vegetarian goth and Tucker was a carnivorous techno geek who never went two seconds without using some piece of technology—and as much as Danny craved popularity and acceptance by the school's elite, he knew he couldn't ask for two more loyal, amazing friends than Sam and Tucker.

He also couldn't ask for two friends who were more stubborn, either. Ever since he'd mentioned the portal to them this morning on the walk to school, the two had insisted that he show them, and now, Sam wanted to take a picture of him inside the portal for her scrapbook.

"Danny's right. His parents' whacky ghost inventions never do anything," said Tucker, barely taking a moment to glance up as he played a portable version of Doomed, "because there aren't any ghosts." Although he'd been interested in seeing the portal this morning, now that he was here it was infinitely less fascinating. Tucker liked technology that worked and that he understood, and the truth was that he could barely comprehend the mess of circuits and wiring that composed the portal. The only thing he had made sense of was that the device lacked a continuous power source—after the initial burst of electricity, Danny's parents had banked on the portal using ectoplasm from the ghost zone to help maintain a stable portal to the other world—and he was pretty certain that either the lack of a continuous power source (or the nonexistence of the ghost zone) was to blame for the device failing to work the way the Fentons had hoped.

"Which means there's no reason to be scared of stepping inside a little portal and letting your friend take a picture, right?" teased Sam, and Danny sighed heavily. He should have known he'd never win against her.

"You should make him wear the suit, too," suggested Tucker, who glanced up a second too long, and he let out a groan when his character was blasted on screen because of it. "Damn it! I'd gotten so far that time!"

"Oh, come on, Tuck," mumbled Danny, ignoring his friend's cursing. "Isn't the picture enough?"

"Suit?" repeated Sam curiously. "What suit?"

"My parents gave me a haz-mat suit for my birthday this year," grumbled Danny as he walked over to the cabinet his parents had stored it in, and pulling it out he showed it to Sam, who resisted the urge to laugh. "I would've preferred a new computer, but 'every Fenton needs a jumpsuit, Danny!'" He said, puffing out his chest slightly as he mocked his father.

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad," said Sam as she came over and fingered the black and white material. "At least it's not bright orange like your dad's."

Sam was right about that at least. The colors weren't bad, but it was still a jumpsuit. A _lame _jumpsuit. "Yeah. Lucky me."

"You should put it on," she urged, and Danny glared at Tucker, silently cursing him for mentioning the stupid thing and secretly cheering on his friend's video game failure out of spite. Tucker was usually pretty good at games, but the new Doomed had proven tougher than even he'd anticipated, and he'd been failing spectacularly at it all afternoon. "You've always wanted to be an astronaut, right?"

"Well, yeah, but—"

"So think of it like a space suit," she interrupted. "Every explorer needs a uniform before exploring a new world."

"You're not going to let this go, are you?" he groaned, looking down at the suit in disgust because no matter what she said, it was still a stupid jumpsuit.

"Nope," said Sam and Tucker at the same time, flashing him identical grins.

"Ugh, fine," he sighed, pulling it on over his simple white t-shirt and a pair of old blue jeans he'd been wearing, and it was then that Sam saw the other part of the jumpsuit she hadn't noticed before—the cut out of Jack Fenton's face that had been hastily tacked on to the front by Danny's father.

"Okay, I'm cruel, but I'm not _that _cruel," she teased, pulling it off and chucking it on the floor as she looked back at the portal and pulled out her camera. "You ready, Danny?"

"I guess," he said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, and for a moment he let the excitement take hold of him as he gazed at the portal, really seeing it for the first time. Usually he never saw what his parents saw when they looked at their inventions. Where they saw possibility, Danny saw failure and waste. Where they saw a portal to another world, Danny saw a circular hunk of metal and wires that had been hastily constructed in their basement out of scrap. Yet standing there in that stupid jumpsuit with his friends behind him, Danny could almost imagine that the portal was real, that it really could lead to a ghost zone, and that he was going to be the first human to set foot there.

Well, the first living human, at any rate.

"Danny?" Sam pushed gently when he didn't move.

"Oh, uh, sorry," he shrugged as he stepped forward. "I guess I was just thinking that maybe you're right, Sam, and that maybe there really is a ghost zone. Maybe there are some totally awesome things on the other side . . ."

"That's the spirit!" she chuckled as she stepped back, aiming the camera at him, and even Tucker paused his game to look up as Danny took a few steps inside. "Now just say 'I'm a dork in a jumpsuit!'"

"Sam!" he exclaimed, laughing as the camera flashed, and Sam looked down and frowned at the picture.

"How about you take another step back?" she suggested, looking at the image. "The lighting's all weird and I can barely see you in this one."

"Seriously?" he groaned. "You want another picture?"

"Just one more," she promised. "After that we can go to the Nasty Burger, okay? My treat."

Danny grinned at her. "You mean you're actually going to buy me a real, greasy burger if I let you take one more picture of me?"

"I think I can stomach buying you some chili cheese fries," she growled. "A burger's pushing it."

"Okay, Sam," he chuckled, and taking a step back he suddenly lost his balance as he tripped on a thick cable. Throwing his hand out to catch himself, he had a brief moment of relief as he just barely managed to stop himself from falling, only to hear an awful click a second later. Danny barely saw the word "ON" written on the switch his hand had just hit before his world was suddenly filled with blinding light and searing pain. His body snapped, becoming rigid as his scream pierced the lab, and he could feel the electricity ripping through him when his world suddenly went white.

Outside the portal, Sam and Tucker stood in horror, their mouths agape, and the second they heard the screaming—Danny's screaming—a moment of absolute terror flooded them both as they both thought, '_He's going to die_.' The light was too bright to keep looking, and blocking their eyes they only turned back when the lab went suddenly, horrifyingly silent.

All in all Danny's screaming only lasted about five seconds, but by the time it was done, the bright white light in the portal was gone, and in its place was a swirling, hypnotic green light that was anything but comforting.

For Danny was nowhere to be seen.

**A/N: Okay, guys. It's AU. Starts where the show starts with some tweaking, and then goes completely askew from there. And yes, I'm aware that this isn't exactly how things happened according to the show, but I wanted to expand/retell the beginning just a bit. **

**A few more things should be said now, too. One: this story will probably be pretty long. I have the gist of it mapped out in my head, and right now I'm planning on there being three parts that are all gonna require a bit of work. Since it's not mostly pre-written like the other story I just finished putting up on this site, that also means that updates might be a bit sporadic, and honestly, I'm a bit nervous I'm not going to finish but this idea refuses to leave me alone. Pff. So here goes nothing. :)**

**Two: I know that this idea isn't new. The whole "Danny ends up in the Ghost Zone after his accident!" idea has been done before at least a few times. I just wanted to do my own bizarre, complicated version of it, and I hope that you guys like it. **

**Three: As always with my stories, this is rated 'T' for a reason. This is going to be a grim, creepy, and sometimes rather twisted story. I'll try to keep everyone as IC as possible despite the somewhat darker plot and atmosphere, but keep in mind that they're going to be forced to adapt to vastly different circumstances than those on the show, which means that naturally they're potentially going to develop a bit differently, too.**

** I think that's about it for now, other than the all-too-obvious request for reviews. I'd seriously appreciate any feedback you guys want to give me. I know this chapter might be a bit dull, but it'll pick up next chapter, I promise!  
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**'Til next time!  
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	2. Chapter 2:  There Is No Pain

**Chapter Two: There Is No Pain**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.**

The first thing Danny noticed was that it didn't hurt anymore.

Even though he wasn't in pain, though, Danny did feel completely exhausted. It was as if he'd just run from Dash for six hours, and weakly he attempted to climb to his feet only to find that there was nothing for him to stand on. Opening his eyes, Danny gasped when he saw an endless green abyss with what looked like the occasional purple door or small island floating within it. Wherever he was, there was no sky, no earth, no sea . . . just nothing but green, and glancing behind him, he saw a slightly darker swirling pool of green energy spinning in space. Not knowing what it did, he automatically floated back a few feet so that he wouldn't accidentally get sucked in by the strange looking whirlpool.

"Is this . . . the ghost zone?" he wondered softly, scared that he might attract unwanted attention, for if the ghost zone was real, then didn't that mean that ghosts were real, too? Danny let out a long breath as he thought about it, but it was hard to keep focused on anything while he was floating. He really, really wished he could just put his feet on solid ground, at least for a minute. Floating was kind of cool, but it was also really disconcerting and he was starting to feel kind of sick.

It was then that another, much more uncomfortable thought hit him. If the ghost zone was real, and ghosts were real and he was now here . . . then did that mean he was a ghost? Looking down at his hands, he saw that he was now wearing white gloves and boots instead of black, and the rest of his jumpsuit was now a deep black instead of the bright white it had once been. Although the jumpsuit alone was enough to make him feel uneasy, Danny couldn't help but notice that there was also a faint glow around his entire body. Experimentally Danny tried waving his hand around to see if somehow that would make the light around his body disappear, but much to his dismay it remained.

He knew that the portal had shocked him pretty badly. Danny definitely felt like he had died, but he couldn't actually be—it just wasn't—"I _can't _be dead," he whispered out loud, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "I can't be a ghost." But there was no one there to contradict him, no one there to prove that it wasn't so, and as he looked at his glowing form and how he was floating here, weightless, pain and scar free after being horribly shocked by his parent's device, he knew that it was true.

Daniel James Fenton was dead.

Nothing more than a ghost.

For a long time he just floated in the empty green space, sobbing softly as he thought about everything he had lost. His friends, his family, his dreams of becoming an astronaut, of falling in love and doing everything that he had ever wanted were gone. He was never going to eat fries at the Nasty Burger again, never going to play another video game, never going to do another homework assignment (or fail to do one, for that matter), never break curfew or get into trouble or tease his annoying older sister. . . His life was over. Gone. Lost.

It might have been minutes, hours, or days before Danny finally stopped crying—for Danny just didn't have a good sense of time in his grief—and once he did, he started wondering where he ought to go from here. He could try the creepy green whirlpool, for something inside him seemed to be urging him to go through it, but he was too disturbed by the swirling energy to risk it. Looking around for a few minutes, Danny finally spotted a piece of land that didn't look too far away, but then a new problem arose.

How did he move? He'd managed to float a few feet before, but he still wasn't sure how he'd done it. He tried waving his arms and clawing at the air as if he were swimming, but that didn't do anything, either. Frowning slightly, Danny looked around and vaguely recalled watching movies and shows where someone could shoot some kind of blast—like the stuff in a fire extinguisher or a jet pack—and use that to move in zero gravity, but he didn't have anything like that and this wasn't exactly space . . . or at least that's what he thought until a green glow suddenly began to appear around his fingers.

"What the—ahhh!" he yelped as a green ball of energy formed in his hands and fired straight in the direction of the whirlpool, and as it shot off he instantly shot a few feet back in the other direction. The green blast hit the whirlpool and seemed to pass harmlessly through it, and Danny trembled slightly as he looked at his hands in shock. He'd just fired some kind of energy beam. _With his hands._

Feeling slightly worn out, Danny wondered if maybe thinking about it was all he had to do to use his ghostly abilities, and looking back at the spit of land, he silently thought about floating over towards it. Although it took a few minutes of concentrating more than he would've liked, his body finally began moving slowly and unsteadily toward the island. "Cool," he whispered to no one, noticing the strange echo in his voice for the first time, and silently he wondered if he could fly, too. Wasn't that one of the three basic ghostly abilities, according to his dad? Ticking them off in his mind, Danny was pretty sure that the three were flight, intangibility, and invisibility. And since he was a ghost now, he was capable of all three.

For a brief moment the thought of being able to fly filled Danny with joy. He'd always wanted to be able to fly in the sky amongst the stars—it was part of the reason why he wanted to be an astronaut—but then he realized that getting these powers had meant dying, and instantly all of those dark thoughts he'd had came rushing back. Getting these powers meant losing his family, his friends, and all of those precious normal moments that he'd taken for granted while he was alive. It also probably meant his family was now suffering, since he was dead and lost to them forever.

"I never should have gone inside that stupid portal," he cursed bitterly, the moment of happiness gone as he landed as gently as he could on the island. Everything looked like it could have been taken from earth. The speck of rock had trees, rocks, grass, fruit, and water, but something about it was just off. There was a sense of . . . awareness to everything that Danny found hard to describe. The whole rock felt as if it were a living, breathing entity, yet the fact that it felt so alive even as Danny felt so dead was mostly just depressing. As he walked around the island and passed a small, deep stream, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the surface that made him instantly stop. Without even realizing what he was doing, he took a few steps forward and floated over the water, his eyes going wide with shock as he stared at his reflection.

Nothing about him was human anymore. His hair had turned a snowy white, his skin was incredibly pale, and his eyes were an eerie, glowing green. His fingers stretched out in disbelief, touching the water, and the ghostly reflection mimicked him exactly. Suddenly Danny felt an intense burst of anguish, and letting out a cry of frustration he swiped his hand angrily through the image, wishing it would go away, wishing he could be human again and that he could feel his heart beating, even for just a minute.

And as if the universe had heard his wish, there was suddenly a bright flash of light as two rings formed around his waist and traveled up and down his body, and Danny gave a short, surprised yelp as a very human Danny Fenton stared back at him for half a second before he plunged into the water.

Sputtering as he broke the surface, Danny couldn't believe it. One minute he'd been a ghost, and now . . . now he was alive again? Placing one of his hands over his heart as he treaded the water, he could feel his heart beating beneath his chest. It seemed a little slow, but it was there, and he could tell he was breathing again, too, since he'd practically drowned after he'd fallen into the stream. Even his jumpsuit was back to normal, with its black boots and gloves that were all so comfortable and familiar, and biting his lip he continued to stare at himself uneasily for a minute.

"Is this just a dream?" he wondered out loud, that strange echo he'd noticed before gone, but as he started swimming back to shore he seriously doubted that he was just sleeping. The water felt too real, and the pain he'd felt in the portal . . . there was no way he could have imagined that. But it was impossible. He couldn't be both alive _and _dead, could he?

"I wish mom were here," he mumbled as he stumbled out of the water and stripped out of his wet jumpsuit and tossed them on to a rock. Thankfully, the stupid hazmat suit was pretty tight so his jeans and shirt and sneakers were all pretty dry, and letting out a long breath he slowly sat down and leaned against one of the creepy trees. Once again he put his hand over his heart, letting the reassuring thump of its constant beat wash through him. His mom was the one person he knew that would be able to explain what was wrong with him, but more importantly she was the only who would be able to hug him and genuinely convince him that everything would be okay no matter how crazy things seemed to be right now. As he sat there alone, though, with his friends and family a world away, Danny was pretty sure that everything wasn't going to be fine.

He was lost, alone, and trapped in a strange world, a ghost yet somehow still human, and as his stomach rumbled he knew he'd still have to worry about human things like eating and drinking while he was here, too. How much food was there in the ghost zone? He'd gotten lucky so far, since there seemed to be some on the island he had landed on, but if he wanted to find a way to get home, then that would mean leaving this place and then food would become a big problem. But from what little Danny had seen, he could tell the Ghost Zone was huge, maybe more vast and infinite than he could ever hope to explore. He could probably look for a hundred years without ever discovering a way back home. "Maybe I should just hang around," he mumbled softly to no one, secretly hoping that if he did then his parents might eventually find him, but in the darkest corners of his mind a small voice whispered that his parents would never come, that they probably thought he was dead and that he was on his own.

Shivering slightly, Danny yawned, his exhaustion once again rolling over him. Physically, mentally, and emotionally spent, Danny knew that what he really needed was sleep. Although he thought he'd be up forever since he couldn't stop thinking about what had happened, in the end he quickly dozed off, his mind filled with nightmares of a horrible light, blinding flashes of pain, and the icy feeling of being nothing more than a ghost.

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><p><strong>AN:** **So this chapter is up a bit later than I anticipated, mostly because of some crummy stuff happening in my life over the past few days, yet for better or for worse I finally got it up. I don't love the way it came out, but I didn't want to wait to update much longer and I wasn't in the mood to keep revising it. Things are just going to be a little bit slow at the start, but the story should pick up quite a bit as we move along or at least that's the plan. ;)  
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**Hmm . . . not much else to say. Next chapter it'll switch perspectives and you guys will get a little bit of insight into what's happening on the other side of the portal with his family as well as some real plot development.** **Right now it looks like I'll have a bit of time to write over the next couple of days, so maybe I'll be able to get the next chapter up a little earlier to make-up for the lateness of this one.**

**And, as always, please review!** **Even a simple "loved it" or "hated it" is better than nothing. :)**

**'Til next time!**


	3. Chapter 3:  Consequences

**Chapter Three: Consequences**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah. I don't own Danny Phantom. **

Maddie couldn't help herself.

Her finger hovered over the key, and after only a slight hesitation she pushed _play_. On screen was a scrawny, blue eyed boy pulling on a white jumpsuit, and as he headed into the vacant portal, she saw his friends flash him encouraging looks. One of them, the dark haired goth girl, held up a camera as the other paused his game long enough to watch. The camera flashed, and then, after a brief discussion that she couldn't hear, the teenager took a step back further inside the portal and stumbled. There was a brief look of confusion, and then a horrified expression flickered across his features just before he was incinerated in a flash of light, his body completely destroyed by the ectoplasm and electricity running through the machine. Tears stung her purplish blue eyes as she watched for what was probably the hundredth time as her son was killed, his scream echoing faintly for only a moment before vanishing entirely.

Her finger hit rewind, her mind unwilling to believe what her eyes were telling her, but this time another hand closed the laptop before she could play the video again. "Mads, enough," whispered Jack, and looking up Maddie saw the sad face of her husband gazing down at her, his normally huge frame somehow seeming ten times smaller than usual. She had never seen her husband look so defeated, so depressed and so lost, but then again, neither of them had experienced anything quite so painful as losing a child before that horrible day.

It had been three days since Danny had died, and yet Maddie could still not believe her son was gone, that she would never see her precious baby boy smiling, laughing, crying, or sleeping ever again. Although she had wanted to go to the ghost zone to see if perhaps his body had ended up there (or even his ghost, for as much as she knew that her son's ghost would not be the boy she knew, Maddie still desperately wanted one last chance to apologize and say goodbye), a strange green ecto blast had come through the portal mere hours after Danny's death and destroyed a handful of their inventions that had been stacked on shelves across from the portal. Whether or not it was caused by a ghost was uncertain, but to be safe her husband quickly constructed a set of heavy, ghost-proof metal doors to seal the gateway and prevent further blasts from potentially decimating the lab or hurting someone. He had just finished installing them when he had come upstairs and found her sitting at the table, watching the security footage from that day, and instead of wearing one of her usual blue jumpsuits she was dressed in only a plain shirt and jeans.

"I just can't believe he's gone," she said, and the tears she'd been holding back instantly burst forward and she let her head fall against her arms. "And now Jazz has been taken away, too, and oh, I just . . ."

"Shh," he whispered, sitting down next to her and holding her gently, although there were tears leaking from his eyes as well. As if losing Danny hadn't been hard enough, the cops had shown up shortly afterward. They had investigated the matter briefly before calling in someone from social services, and although everyone there had determined that Danny's death was a horrible accident, they also believed that it was due to gross negligence. The house was determined unsafe for a minor, and Jazz was taken away from them before Jack or Maddie had even had a chance to accept that Danny was dead. Although it had been too late to do anything substantial, Jack had at least managed to contact his old friend Vlad Masters and beg him for help. Vlad had promised that he would try to get social services to give Jazz back to them, but he insisted that he couldn't do anything beyond that. For now, the best Vlad could do was to take care of Jazz for them, and no one had questioned whether or not the billionaire was a suitable foster parent for the now estranged daughter.

Other than that, though, relatively little had happened since Danny died. Maddie's sister had come up and was taking care of the funeral arrangements—the thought still left both Jack and Maddie physically sick, no matter how much everyone told them that holding a funeral for their son would help them move on—and since they had been self-employed inventors, neither one had given even half a thought to work. They would still have money, even if they never created another piece of equipment again thanks to the numerous patents they had in place, and the Federal Bureau of Paranormal Investigation (better known as the Guys in White because of their bizarre obsession with dressing in pristine, white suits) had bought a considerable number of their blueprints over the years. To Jack and Maddie, however, that hardly mattered right now. Neither of them felt like eating much or doing anything else at the moment, no matter how necessary, and even Jack hadn't wanted a piece of fudge in days. It was just hard to keep going knowing that their son was dead, and that it had been one of their inventions and their carelessness that had caused it.

From what she understood, Danny's friends weren't doing much better. After the accident, Maddie had initially blamed them when they walked up to her sobbing as they explained what had happened. After all, Sam and Tucker were the ones who had convinced her son to step inside, but even though Danny still should have known better, Maddie knew that Danny would have done just about anything his friends wanted. Of course, in the end it was still Danny's decision, still their invention that had done the deed, and she shouldn't have screamed at Sam and Tucker that way. They were probably a mess now, grieving, hopeless, and guilt ridden, thinking that it was all their fault when really it was her's and Jack's . . . It had just been so hard not to blame _someone_, though, to blame anyone else but herself or her son or her husband, and when the pair had told her the truth . . . She shook her head, trying not to think about it since she knew her mind would just go in the same downward spiral for hours if she started thinking this way now.

"I just want him back, honey," she said, her sobs finally slowing down, but it wasn't because it didn't hurt anymore. Maddie was simply out of tears. "I keep—I keep going into his room, expecting to see him sleeping there or playing video games . . . but he's just not."

"I know, Mads," said Jack, not sure what else to say. In just a few days he had lost everything. His son was gone. His wife was a wreck. His precious daughter had been taken away from him. And the one thing he had loved doing—inventing new weapons and devices to better understand and fight ghosts—had ultimately caused the death of his son. Before the portal had been turned on, he had had thousands of ideas and creations he wanted to try, but now they were gone, and his newest blueprints were merely becoming dust collectors in a lab that he never wanted to set foot in again.

But he knew he would have to go back down there, no matter how much the mere thought made him want to scream. Shutting off the portal was impossible since it was now self-sustaining, and it required regular maintenance or else it would probably explode and take what little left that he loved with it. And ultimately, that meant that he would have to go back into the lab, no matter how much he didn't want to ever again, and it had to be him since there was no way Maddie would ever be able to do it. Somehow, Jack had to be strong even when all he wanted to do was give up.

A knock suddenly sounded on the door, and but neither one rose since they both planned to just ignore whoever it was. They were tired of being pestered by people offering their sympathy and curious neighbors, of being pestered by cops and detectives and agents from social services. The man at the door, however, would not be deterred, and he knocked harder, his voice insistent as he called out to them. "Mr. and Mrs. Fenton? This is Agent L. Can we have a word?"

"Make them go away," whispered Maddie, not looking up at Jack as she wearily buried her face in her arms. "Please?"

"Okay," Jack replied, sighing heavily. Every trace of joy was gone. The once happy, bumbling naïve man had been replaced by a depressed shadow self that just couldn't see the same light he once had now that his son was dead.

Standing at the door was a man in a white suit with fair skin and short, dark hair. Jack had never been able to tell the agents apart very well, but he knew that he normally dealt with either Agent K or Agent O. He didn't think he'd ever even heard of an Agent L before. "Can't you come and harass us some other time?" grumbled Jack bitterly. "Don't you people know what happened?"

"Yes, Mr. Fenton, and I'm sorry for your loss," he stated without a trace of sincerity. The man sounded like he couldn't care less, but Jack wasn't in the mood to pick a fight. "That's also why I'm here. See, my organization is very interested in your ghost portal, and we'd be willing to pay you a substantial amount of money for your property and all of your blueprints and equipment, so much that you wouldn't have to worry about finances ever again."

Or maybe he did feel like picking a fight after all, for at the agent's words Jack felt his temper instantly rise. "You really think I care about something like _money _right now?" snapped Jack, slamming his hand against the door frame and cracking it ever so slightly. "My son is _dead_!"

"I know, Mr. Fenton, and I imagine that remaining here in this place with the instrument of his demise so close at hand must be painful," said Agent L coolly, not showing a hint of fear despite the man's outburst. "We're giving you an opportunity for a clean slate, and if you'd like, we can also clear up this mess with your daughter."

"You could get Jazz back for us?" whispered Jack, his eyes lighting up as his anger receded, and the Agent resisted the urge to smile. It was too easy.

"Yes."

"I need to talk to Maddie about this," he said, his voice catching slightly, for he already knew his answer. He wanted to say yes, but Maddie might not forgive him if he did. As much as Jack would be happy never seeing this house again, Maddie was the kind of person who would want to remain, as if staying there forever would somehow bring their son back to them.

And while Jack might understand that sentiment, he'd much rather sacrifice this house and such an absurd hope to have his daughter back in his arms again.

"Of course," said Agent L, pulling out a card. "Here's my number. Give me a call when you know what you'd like, but if I don't hear from you in the next week, then I'll assume that your answer is no and I may be forced to simply take your property instead."

"Why not do that now?"

"Because it's easier if you cooperate," he said, "and because our organization understands the pain and suffering you must be feeling at this time, as well as the numerous contributions that you've made in the past. We wouldn't want to cause you anymore pain."

"Of course," said Jack, this time not picking up on the man's lack of sincerity as he took the card. "I'll speak to Mads about it."

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><p>The red headed sixteen year old girl sat outside the Nasty Burger, looking more disheveled than she had in years. Mere hours after her brother had died, Jasmine Fenton had been snatched away from her parents before she'd even had a chance to try and cope with what had happened. For three days now she had been living with one of her father's old college friends, the multi-billionaire Vladimir Masters, and every day she wished she could go home. It wasn't because she particularly disliked Vlad. He'd been nothing but kind to her, offering to do whatever he could to help her and yet still willing to leave her alone when she insisted on it, but it just wasn't enough. Like her, Jazz's parents were falling apart and they all desperately needed each other, but because of some stupid laws and social services they were forced to remain apart.<p>

Although she wasn't in the mood to do much, Jazz had agreed to meet Sam and Tucker at the Nasty Burger. Neither Sam nor Tucker had really wanted to come, but Jazz hadn't been asking. She'd insisted. She knew that Danny's friends were blaming themselves for what had happened—and her mother's outburst hadn't helped that, either—and she had to try and help them see that it wasn't their fault. As much as Jazz was struggling to keep her head above water, she knew that those two would not be able to stay afloat at all without her help, and Danny, wherever he was now, wouldn't forgive her if she didn't do all she could to make sure they pulled through this.

"Hey, Jazz," said someone suddenly, and frowning Jazz saw a pretty, dark skinned girl standing behind her. She looked to be about Danny's age, but Danny had never mentioned her before and Jazz couldn't think of her name.

"Do I know you?"

"I'm Valerie," she introduced. "I was—um, well, I didn't really know Danny," she admitted as she sat down beside her. "We kind of hung out in different crowds."

"You don't really know me, either," said Jazz, her tone a bit colder than she'd intended, but the other girl didn't flinch.

"I know, but . . . I know what you're going through," she explained. "See, my mom died last year in a bad car accident. I was really messed up about it. Still kind of am, sometimes. Now it's just me and my dad, but my dad's one of those bury himself in his work types, you know?"

"I can relate a bit," said Jazz. The pile of books she'd read in the past few days, the homework assignments that she'd done, everything screamed that she was desperately seeking a distraction from the pain that just refused to go away. "But that still doesn't explain why you're talking to me."

"I just—I wanted to let you know that I'm sorry about what happened," she said gently, "and that if you need someone to talk to, someone who can at least kind of get what you're going through and who's a bit further through it than you are, then don't hesitate to come to me. Sam and Tucker can, too, although . . . I don't think they'll want to. I'm pretty sure they don't like me very much."

"Thanks," said Jazz, although she doubted that she would actually take the girl up on her offer. For a moment Valerie sat quietly beside her, and then, after gently patting Jazz on the shoulder, she stood up and headed off. It was probably for the best, too, since a minute later Tucker and Sam showed up, and when Jazz saw them she knew they were doing even worse than she thought.

Sam was a complete mess. Her make-up was smeared and hadn't actually been washed off in days, her hair was loose and slightly tangled, and instead of her usual stylish plaid skirt, boots, and black top, she was dressed in a simple pair of dark pants and a dark shirt that looked more like pajamas than day to day clothing. Tucker wasn't doing much better. It was clear that he hadn't been sleeping, and Jazz saw no sign of his PDA or his signature red beret. Neither one looked like they wanted to be there, and when they saw Jazz they merely collapsed onto the sidewalk beside her instead of heading inside.

"Hey, Jazz," said Tucker, no trace of a smile on his face. "Have you found out if you can go home yet?"

"No," she sighed. "I'm still stuck with Mr. Masters for now, but Dad called and said that he might've made a deal with the Guys in White that'll help me get home faster."

"The who?"

"Does it matter?" grumbled Sam. "What do you want, Jazz?"

"I wanted—well, I wanted to talk to you guys," she said. She had almost said that she wanted to see if they were doing okay, but that was stupid because they clearly weren't and she shouldn't have expected them to be. "I was worried about you."

"Well, as you can see, we're doing just _splendidly," _said Sam sarcastically. "I mean, who wouldn't be after killing their best friend three days ago?"

"Sam, it wasn't your fault," said Jazz instantly. "Or yours, Tucker. Danny was the one who made the decision to go in the portal, and besides, you two—no, _all of us_ thought that it didn't work. What happened was an accident, and you both need to remember that."

"Your mom clearly doesn't think so," said Tucker slowly.

"My mom was upset and desperately wanted a target to lash out at because of the guilt she also feels over his death ," said Jazz, almost choking on that last word. It was still hard to admit that her brother was gone forever, but Jazz knew that she would never be able to move on if she denied it for the rest of her life. Danny was dead. He wasn't coming back. "It's not worth blaming yourselves for it, guys, and you both know that my brother wouldn't want you to feel guilty about this for the rest of your lives. He'd want you to move on, to live your life as much as possible both for your sake and his."

"But what he wants doesn't really matter anymore, does it?" snapped Sam. "He's dead, Jazz. He doesn't want anything now."

"He might not here, but we still are, Sam, and in honor of his memory we shouldn't lose sight of that and just give up," Jazz explained, her voice calm. "I thought you'd understand that." Climbing to her feet, Jazz let out a long breath. This was useless. They weren't going to listen to her, and she just didn't have the energy right now to argue with them until they finally saw reason. She had done the best she could, or at least, as much as she felt up to doing, and as much as she wished she could help them some more she knew that at this point Tucker and Sam were on their own. They were going to sink or swim with or without her help, and they would have to learn to deal with this in their own way. The best she could do was to let them know that she was there for them, too. "Look, I know that nothing I can say will make this better for any of us, but I just-if you want to talk, then I'm here, okay?"

"Okay, Jazz," said Tucker, his voice dead and emotionless.

"I need to go, but . . . you guys know that is wake is tomorrow night, right?" she said, and Tucker gave a slight nod. "So you'll be there?"

"Don't worry, Jazz," said Tucker as he wrapped an arm around Sam. Normally the goth would have shrugged him off, but she was too desperate for the comfort to push him away, and so the two of them continued to sit there, not moving as he held Sam closely. "We'll be there."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Just a glimpse of what's going on with everyone else, as well as some hints of what's to come. Next chapter it'll be switching back to Danny's perspective (and at the very least every other chapter will probably revolve around what's happening to him in the Ghost Zone since, y'know, he is the main character and all). And yeah, I know I could've done a bit more with Sam and Tucker and how they're handling the whole "my buddy's dead" business, but after doing all three Fentons I didn't really feel like dragging that out too much. Angst is all well and good, but, uh, yeah. It would've been a bit too much, IMO, so instead you just get a snapshot of how they're taking it. You'll still get a bit more as the story progresses, too, so for now I just don't want to overdo it.  
><strong>

**Oh, and I'm going to say right now I won't be doing a funeral scene. Sometimes that's appropriate, but for this story is just doesn't feel quite right and I don't love writing those very much.**

**Hmm . . . Oh, yeah. As for Agent L, I just needed a GiW agent who was more competent than Agents K and O, 'cause yikes, are those guys ever failures or what? I generally try to avoid using OCs, but right now I'm pretty sure that he's not going to be a major character in the story even though the GiW will end up playing a part, so . . . yup. No worries if you dislike 'em.**

**Right. For now, at least, I think that's it. 'Til next time!**

**And, as always, please review. ;)  
><strong>


	4. Chapter 4:  Here There Be Ghosts

**Chapter Four: Here There Be Ghosts**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.  
><strong>

When Danny finally awoke, he felt as if he had slept for a hundred years. His body felt stiff and unfamiliar, his limbs ached, and as he looked around he wondered exactly how long he had actually slept. Although he'd been worried that he would have nightmares of the accident or, worse yet, the loneliness that was steadily growing inside of him, whether he had or hadn't didn't matter since he couldn't remember anything about his dreams that night, anyway.

But now, unfortunately, he was hungry and thirsty. His thirst was easy enough—the stream nearby made that problem vanish instantly—but his hunger, on the other hand . . . He couldn't remember ever wanting something to eat as much as he did just then, and looking around he managed to spot a few suspicious looking plants and fruits. Although he vaguely remembered the survival course his mom gave him and how she specifically stated that eating fruits (and especially berries), was a really bad idea unless you knew exactly what type it was, Danny was too hungry to care. There were a few animals around, but all of them were glowing, and it wasn't as if Danny had ever hunted anything before, let alone ghost creatures that he probably couldn't eat anyway.

Besides, at this point he was already half-dead and stranded in a world full of beings that were completely dead. Did it really matter if he died now?

_Yes_, a voice seemed to whisper, but Danny pushed it down as he shoved a handful of reddish blue berries into his mouth. They were so bitter that he almost spit them right back out, but ultimately he swallowed them down, hoping that he wouldn't regret it too much later.

He was on his third handful when a chill ran through him and his breath fogged in the air. There was a strange, low hissing coming from the spot to his left, and instantly he froze, hoping that whatever it was would just pass by without harassing him. Of course, Danny should have known better. If his luck these past few days proved anything, it was that the worst was bound to happen, and the instant he thought that whatever it was had gone a long tentacle whipped out from behind some trees and smacked him hard into the ground.

Instinctively going intangible, Danny passed through the creature's limb as a cold, tugging sensation gripped his heart, and instead of fighting it Danny let the icy feeling wash over him. Two bright, white rings of light passed over his body, and even though he couldn't see much of himself, the reappearance of his jumpsuit and the eerie glow around his body were enough to prove to Danny that he was once again a ghost.

Floating a few inches off the ground, Danny narrowed his now spectral green eyes on the tentacle as it whipped back through the trees. Without thinking, he instantly turned invisible and followed it, and on the other side was a strange, octopus like creature that was staring at him with disturbingly hungry, glowing eyes.

"If one of us is going to eat the other for dinner, it's me," he growled, becoming visible once again as he held up his hands and tried to create a beam of ecto energy like he had the day before, but this time nothing came. Glancing down at his fingers, he waved his right hand and smacked it against his left as if it was a flashlight on the fritz, but no green glow appeared. "Oh, no, come on," he groaned as the creature whipped another tentacle at him, and Danny barely managed to duck in time. "Come on, damn it, work! Stupid freaking powers!"

As the creature attacked with another of its limbs, Danny continued to try and dodge it, desperately hoping that he could keep a step ahead of the powerful lashes. He'd already been hit by it once, and that had hurt like hell. He didn't think he could take a second blow, and just as he jumped over a low-aimed tentacle, something else struck him hard in the back and sent him flying straight into the octopus.

The octopus he collided with might have been squishy, but that didn't matter much when they were sent flying together into a nearby tree. And, despite getting the brunt of the blow, the creepy ghost recovered slightly faster than Danny did. Wrapping one of its tentacles around his left leg and hissing as it raised him up, Danny caught a glimpse of two more of the creatures, and one of those octopi was definitely responsible for hitting him from behind.

"Oh, great, three of them," he groaned as he dangled upside down. "I was barely handling one."

_How the hell am I going to get out of this?_ He thought, and then it hit him. He had to go intangible. If he did, then he would slip through the octopus' grasp, yet it seemed like no matter how hard he kept thinking the word intangible over and over again in his head, he remained solidly in the creature's grasp. Yesterday all he'd had to do was wish for his powers to work and it had happened, so why wasn't it working the same way today?

_Maybe there was something else . . . _he thought idly as the other creature drew closer, and if he'd had a beating heart just then, it would have been racing madly away in his chest as he began to wonder whether or not ghosts ate other ghosts. These two definitely looked like they wanted to have him as a midnight snack.

"Come on, stupid powers," he whispered as the creature opened its mouth, and Danny desperately wished he could at least blast the stupid thing in the face even if he couldn't get out of its grip. He didn't want to die. Not like this.

_You idiot, Fenton, _he thought as he closed his eyes. _You're _already _half-dead. What the hell are you so afraid of?_

The thought struck a strange cord within Danny, for it was true. He was half-dead. He was a ghost. He'd been horribly electrocuted in the portal, killed within seconds that felt like decades to his pain addled brain, and he was now stranded in this place, alone for what would probably be the rest of eternity. There was no way in hell he was just going to sit by and let some stupid octopus beat the crap out of him, or three stupid octopi, for that matter, and as his eyes snapped open, he felt as if someone had wrapped a frozen lightning bolt around his fingertips.

Cool, spectral energy swirled around his hand, and taking it Danny pointed his hand at the creature's face and blasted it at point blank range. Letting out a horrific shriek, it dropped him and Danny hit the ground hard, his head smashing against the earth, yet even though it hurt and he felt like he'd cracked his skull, Danny managed to get back on his feet.

"Get the hell off my island," he snapped as energy built around his hands again, and once more he released it, blasting the trio of creatures and sending them flying through trees until they collided hard with something. Danny wasn't sure what they'd hit, but it sounded like it hurt, and desperately wanting to get out of there before they recovered he quickly started running away, only to realize a few seconds later that at some point he'd stopped running and actually started flying. Despite the situation, a crazy smile appeared on his face as he thought about it. The floating was okay and stuff, but flying through the forest, zipping around trees at speeds that would make a race car driver sick?

It was easily the most amazing thing Danny had ever done. Nothing else came even close.

The island wasn't massive, but it was big enough that when Danny finally stopped, there were no signs of the strange octopi. Slowing down and landing unsteadily within a couple of trees, he took a minute to compose himself, to try and feel normal again and lose the rush he'd gotten from his mad flight through the forest, and when he finally did, he realized two things.

One: he wasn't hungry anymore. For whatever reason, his hunger didn't bother him at all as a ghost, which meant that in the interest of survival, he would probably be better off remaining in his ghostly form as much as possible.

Two: he needed to get some kind of control over these stupid powers. He still had no idea how he'd started flying or how he'd made those ecto-blasts, and even though the octopus ghosts were out of the way for now, he knew they'd probably be back to harass him again at some point. At this point, Danny wasn't even sure how he'd transformed into a ghost . . . it had just sort of happened, like some weird instinct.

"Great," he grumbled as he sat down and let out a long breath. "So now I've got to worry about figuring out these powers and finding a way home." After today, he knew that he couldn't just sit and wait for his parents to find him, especially since his parents probably thought he was dead (and, despite the shock he'd gotten, Danny still had no idea whether or not the portal actually worked so they might not even have a way to find him and bring him home), but the thought of venturing out into that vast realm was still terrifying. Even if he did manage to get his powers under control, Danny wasn't sure what he'd do if he came up against a really powerful ghost.

Because as much as he didn't want to admit it, somehow he _knew _that those stupid octopus ghosts weren't that strong, and even they'd come close to killing him—or whatever it was called when you destroyed something half-dead—so letting out a long sigh, he looked down at his hand and focused.

"Intangible," he murmured, staring at it and hoping it would just happen, yet his hand remained stubbornly solid.

"Great," he muttered sarcastically. "Well, at least I have a lot of time to practice."

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><p><strong>AN: Hmm . . . I actually don't think I had anything that I wanted to say this time around, other than thanks for the reviews (I do reply to the signed ones, but there's always a couple of anonymous ones, so seriously, I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate it). Oh, and I suppose I can let you guys know that next chapter will switch back to the other side of the portal again and that Vlad will most likely make an actual appearance. Right now I'm not sure when I'll be posting that, though, since I just picked up another job and I'm gonna start to be kind of busy. I'll try to keep the updates coming at least once a week, but no promises. ;)**

**And finally, as always, please review!**


	5. Chapter 5:  Deals

**Chapter Five: Deals**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, I don't own DP. Moving on.**

A week passed before Agent L finally called and asked Jack whether or not he and Maddie would accept their offer, and since Vlad had made very little progress, he and Maddie agreed. Although Maddie had done next to nothing in the week and a half since her son's death and had barely managed to say "yes," Jack hoped that maybe moving and having Jazz back would be able to distract them both from their pain. Seeing his daughter at the wake and at Danny's funeral had been nightmarish, mostly because they'd been forced to immediately watch her walk out of their lives again, and from the looks of it Jazz hadn't been handling it much better.

"How soon before I have my daughter back?" he asked Agent L as he signed the paperwork. On a different day he might have thought about whether or not they were really doing the right thing. Sure, the FBPI were brilliant ghost hunters and were the only officials to take their research seriously, but they had always been a little too extreme for both Jack and Maddie's taste. He worried a lot about what they would use the portal for now that they had a free pass to the ghost zone, and he seriously hoped that they wouldn't do anything so drastic that it would put everyone else in danger.

"We'll inform the appropriate agencies and Vladimir Masters this evening that Jasmine may be returned to your care in the morning," replied the agent calmly as he flicked a nonexistent speck of dirt off the cuff of his white suit jacket. The house was a bit of a disaster at the moment since neither Jack nor Maddie had concerned themselves much with cleaning, and the remains of a week's worth of cheap take-out and instant dinners were scattered about the kitchen. Although his suit was still clean, the mere sight of all the garbage made the agent consistently look down as if it would suddenly transfer from the room to his clothing. Seeing the disaster made him seriously reconsider the deal he had made with them about returning their daughter, but ultimately what happened to the girl mattered very little to Agent L. "You will have one week to clear out your belongings and to hand over the property to us. We have paid for a new household for you to live in on the outskirts of Amity Park, and you may begin moving in there immediately. If the house is not to your liking, then please let our agency know and we will make another arrangement."

"Thank you, Agent L," said Jack quietly as he escorted the agent out the door. He wasn't worried about the new house at all. Anything was better than remaining here, and honestly, if Jack had had it his way, then he would have moved them out of Amity Park as well. Maddie, however, had refused to go so far away. Leaving the house in return for her daughter was something she could accept; abandoning the place that they had finally started to think of as their home was not, and although she protested, Jack knew that she still held onto the faint hope that maybe their son was alive and lost in the ghost zone somewhere. Even after his funeral, she still could not let that hope die.

And Jack could not bring himself to crush it, for in his heart of hearts, he wished for the same miracle.

"Oh, and Mr. Fenton? One of our scientists will be over tomorrow. Please go over your research and blueprints with her, or at least cover enough ground that she will be adequately prepared to take over your research," he commanded.

"There's too much to do in just a day," said Jack, a bit skeptical that anyone would stand a reasonable chance of taking over his and Maddie's research. They were the foremost experts in their field, after all, and had earned their impressive reputation for a reason. Even the FBPI didn't have a paranormal scientist capable of understanding half of their research (or at least not one that Jack or Maddie had heard of before), and Jack couldn't help but feel a little worried that whoever it was would be calling on him and his wife for explanations for months despite Agent L's assurances that the FBPI would respect his and Maddie's wishes to be left alone after this.

"Then just do what you can to at least prepare her for anything vitally important regarding the portal or the prototypes that you have constructed so far," said Agent L. "We wouldn't want another accident, eh?"

A shudder passed through Jack as he thought once again of his son, of his scream as it echoed over the security footage from that day that his wife had watched countless times . . . "No, Agent L," he agreed softly. "I'll do what I can. If you have any questions afterward, then feel free to ask me. But . . . please. Leave Mads out of this, okay? She . . . She just can't right now."

"I understand," lied the agent, for he had never cared for anyone, never had a real family to call his own, and the Fenton's pain was as distant and as unknowable to him as all had believed the Ghost Zone to be before the day of Daniel Fenton's demise.

Gently shutting the door behind the agent, Jack wasted no time with a farewell as he turned to packing up the household. He had set Maddie on some of the easier tasks—packing up the dishes and clothing and appliances and cleaning the kitchen, for example—and he had decided to take on the harder chore of packing up the photos and their son's room. Seeing their son's smiling face looking back at him, feeling his presence in the space that he had lived in for years, was so overwhelming that Jack spent most of his evening alone, sobbing quietly. Not for the first time, he wondered if it would ever get easier, if he would ever be able to look at a photo of his son without breaking down into tears.

If nothing else, at that moment Jack Fenton believed that he would never again have anything to do with the paranormal. His son's death had been a harsh lesson about the price of tampering with the supernatural. Vlad's accident should have been warning enough, but no, he and Maddie had continued on, had continued researching despite all the signs that showed they should stop before something truly terrible happened, and now it was too late to take it back no matter how much both Jack and Maddie wished they could.

Little did Jack know, however, that even as he swore to abandon his research and his former dreams, the first semi-powerful group of ghosts were emerging through a natural portal nearby.

And although a group of ectoplasmic octopi seemed more absurd than threatening, the trio of ghosts was the first in series of waves that would soon rock Amity Park and put an end to Jack and Maddie Fenton's early retirement.

* * *

><p>Vlad Masters did not believe that Daniel Fenton was dead.<p>

Of course, he had a special reason for not instantly assuming the worst. Having suffered from a similar lab accident years ago, Vlad knew that there was still the possibility that the boy was alive and lost somewhere within the Ghost Zone, either unwilling or unable to get home. Indeed, his own accident had left the billionaire hospitalized for quite a long time, and so it was not absurd to presume that boy might currently be unconscious and helpless somewhere within the Zone and desperately in need of a kind benefactor's assistance. The lack of a body only seemed to strengthen this possibility even as it seemed to negate it for everyone else, but then again, no one else knew about Vlad or the unusual aftermath of his accident. They simply couldn't conceive of such a possibility, of such a thing as a half-ghost, not when the evidence from their perspective pointed so sharply towards poor Daniel being dead.

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he pictured the scene—Vlad, triumphantly returning with the poor boy in his arms, safe and sound and forever indebted to the wonderful man who would be his savior and future mentor. After all, who else could possibly hope to understand what the boy was going through after his painful accident, or the loneliness and suffering he'd had to endure for the couple of weeks that he was trapped within the zone? No one could, naturally, no one but the billionaire, and so he would take the boy on as his pupil and treat him like his son . . . something which would naturally be even easier once the lovely Maddie abandoned Jack to take her place beside the man who had saved poor, young Daniel. After all, why would she ever want to stay with Jack? He was the one that developed the portal and created the infernal device in the first place, and it was probably—no, definitely—Jack's fault that Danny almost died. And unlike Maddie, who was beautiful and intelligent and open-minded, Jack was an oaf who would never see past the ghostly nature of his son. He'd seek to destroy the little badger, not accept him, unlike Vlad who would welcome the boy with open arms . . .

And, of course, he'd take the girl back, too. Glancing over at the red-headed young woman who sat quietly curled up in a chair with a thick psychology book on her lap, Vlad couldn't help the grin that appeared as he considered that particular stroke of genius. It hadn't taken very long for him to hear about poor Daniel's accident—that oaf had called him quickly enough when he realized that Vlad had something he wanted, even if it was just his influence with some of Amity Park's local officials that were concerned for Jasmine's safety—and although Vlad felt no particular fondness for her, he knew that taking Jasmine in and doing everything he could to assist her during this tough time would only help improve his relationship with Maddie.

Of course, Maddie might be a little upset when she learned that Vlad had been stalling with Social Services . . . It would have been easy to convince the fools to give Jazz back to her foolish father and wonderful mother, especially given his rather unique abilities, but Vlad hoped that he'd be able to use the time with her to develop a relationship with the girl and to have more time with Maddie. He'd even managed to quickly purchase a new home in Amity Park just to be closer to his beloved and to make the girl happy, although he'd had to overshadow and bribe a few more people than he would've preferred to in order to have the transaction go through so quickly and to avoid all of the usual nonsense involved with purchasing a home . . . It was frustrating, but in the end it would all be worth it. Amity Park was closer to the portal that young Daniel had passed through, and if Vlad could manage to gain access to it he'd have a much easier time of finding the boy. The Ghost Zone, after all, was somewhat confusing to navigate and so vast that it might as well be infinite, and real world locations had no obvious relationship to locations in the Ghost Zone. It might take Vlad days or weeks to determine where the Fenton's portal was relative to his own portal in the Ghost Zone, and the longer it took him to locate, the less likely that Daniel would still be close enough to where he'd come through. And that, of course, just meant that it would become even harder for him to rescue the boy.

Getting into the portal, however, would be tougher than Vlad hoped, since Jack had been hovering over it for days and now he'd apparently installed some kind of doors or security system to prevent any ghosts from entering or exiting through the portal. Personally, Vlad wasn't sure how well a set of doors would actually work at keeping a ghost out since they could simply go intangible, yet just in case there was more to the design than he'd heard (for once, Jack hadn't been willing to go into nauseating amounts of detail about his work when Vlad tried to ask him about it . . . his depression over his son and daughter was just too great), he'd arranged for a few of his ghosts to try to attack Jack by passing through the portal to get into the lab. Although Vlad probably should have followed them to figure out how to get to the Fenton's portal from his own, it would have been hard for Vlad to explain why he'd left poor Jasmine all alone for hours, potentially even for days, when he was supposed to be her guardian, and with how long it had been since he'd initially dispatched them, he was beginning to wonder if the foolish creatures had managed to have any luck at all locating the new portal in the Ghost Zone.

Perhaps he would be better off releasing Skulker and allowing him to destroy the doors and security system from this side to clear a path for him instead . . . No doubt the hunter would also stand a much, much better chance of killing Jack than any foolish ectopus. Jack Fenton was pathetic, but even he was likely too good to be thwarted by such a weak ghost, and with Maddie still supporting that oaf those ghosts would have almost no chance. Even Skulker might have trouble with her, and he didn't want to take the chance that the hunter would find her to be such worthy prey that he'd attempt to hang her pelt on his wall. Vlad's control over the ghosts only extended so far, and no amount of new weapons or materials could overcome Skulker's obsession with hunting "worthy" prey. For now, at least, he was better off waiting to see how the ectopuses faired. If nothing happened in another day or so, then he'd try a different approach.

"Jasmine, dear?" he said softly, and the girl looked up uneasily from her textbook, her expression clearly showing that she was uncomfortable with the endearment.

"Umm . . . yes, Mr. Masters?" she stuttered. "And really, it's just Jazz, okay? You don't need to call me by my full name."

"Ah, but you should never be ashamed of the name your sweet mother gave you, Jasmine," he told her with a faint smile. "It's quite lovely, really. Very respectable."

"Thanks . . . I guess, but my dad was actually the one who picked it out for me," she mumbled, frowning. "Didn't you have a question or something?"

"Ah, yes. I wondered, Jasmine, if there was anything in particular that you'd like for dinner this evening? My new chef finally started working today, and he's supposed to be quite the culinary genius," Vlad said. "He can supposedly cook dishes so spectacular that they've made grown men weep."

For a moment she paused and stared down at her book, her eyes not really seeing the words at all as she considered it, and then she quietly mumbled something.

"What was that, dear?" he asked, certain that he'd heard something about "glowing" in there somewhere, but that made little sense.

"I said that all I really want to eat is my mom's cooking, even if it glows," she replied, shaking slightly, and he could see the tears beginning to build up in her eyes. "She's a terrible cook, you know, and she and dad are always using their weird inventions to try and make dinner. I don't think I've had a meal that hasn't had some part of it that glows in years. I used to complain about it every day, but now . . . now I really, really just want something that glows." She chuckled softly, shaking her head. "That's crazy, isn't it? I'm totally losing it. I actually _want _food that's inedible."

And then the dam broke loose, and before Vlad knew it the girl was crying, weeping all over her book and her lap . . . He'd never, ever been very good with children, especially when they were sobbing like this, and biting his lip uncertainly he stood up to comfort her when his phone suddenly rang.

"Oh, butter biscuits," he cursed softly as he grabbed his cell phone, and glancing at the caller ID he noticed it was the Fentons. Of course, he had no way of knowing which Fenton it might be, and with the hope that his beloved's voice would be on the other end of the line, he flipped it open.

"Vlad Masters speaking," he said, and winced the instant Jack's deep voice came over the telephone. It was really, really difficult not to tune him out, yet when Jack suddenly mentioned something about a deal with the FBPI, Vlad instantly snapped back to attention.

"You did _what?_" he hissed over the phone, his dark tone making Jasmine flinch, for she'd never seen him so angry. Although Vlad did have a bit of a temper, he was fairly adept at keeping it under control, yet this . . . this _idiot _always knew just what to do to bring that darkness out of him.

"_We sold the place to the Guys in White," _Jack explained once more over the phone, _"i__n return for our daughter. I know it might've been stupid, Vladdie, but . . . but we needed our daughter back. Mads and I—well—we're falling apart. We just couldn't wait any longer. Agent L said that he'd be calling you, y'know, to work out the details and stuff."_

"Are you insane?" roared Vlad, turning as his eyes flashed a brilliant red, for he knew his emotions were running too high for him to keep his eyes under control, and the last thing he needed was Jasmine to see it and think the worst of him. "Do you know what those fools—what they'll do to—and—"

"_I know they probably won't do what's right," _Jack admitted solemnly, much to Vlad's surprise since his old "friend" was generally hopelessly naïve and completely unwilling to realize when he'd made a mistake. _"And I know I might regret this later, but I just . . . what else were we going to do, Vlad? If we refused, he threatened to seize the house anyway. At least this way we got our daughter back."_

There were a thousand words, a thousand curses, and a thousand painful things that Vlad wanted to do to Jack Fenton just then, but somehow he managed to stop himself. Taking a long, deep breath and releasing it slowly, he forced himself to calm down and to try and feign some sense of composure. The situation was less than ideal, but Vlad was nothing if not brilliant. He would figure out a way to fix this mess, somehow, for if the portal was now in the hands of the FBPI, then it would be much, much harder for him to gain access to it. Although he didn't relish the thought of trying to find Daniel without that particular starting point, it seemed he now had little choice, and if the Fentons were getting Jasmine back then he'd have a chance to investigate the ghost zone in person rather than sending some other ghost in his stead.

Besides, the boy might not be anywhere near the portal anymore. Time in the ghost zone had a nasty habit of lining up less than perfectly with the flow of time in the real world, and although it had only been about a week since the boy had vanished on this side, it easily could have been as much as a month or more from young Daniel's perspective in the Ghost Zone.

Letting out a long sigh, Vlad forced himself to remain calm and asked, "So when will you be here for Jasmine?"

"_We should be there tomorrow, if everything goes according to plan," _he replied. _"Look, Vladdie, I know that this wasn't the smartest move, but we had to do it, and, uh . . . well, thanks for everything you've done for us. If there's anything we can do for you, just let us know, okay?"_

'_How about you drop dead and give Maddie back to me?' _Vlad thought viciously, but to Jack he simply said, "Oh, it was no trouble at all . . . and I suppose I do understand that you had no choice in the matter. Desperate times and all . . . But I have other things I need to attend to tonight, Jack, and I'll have to let Jasmine know so that she can be ready for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" whispered Jazz suddenly, and turning around he saw her face light up, her eyes shining in a way that they never had before within these walls despite everything that Vlad had done for her. "Does that mean . . .?"

"Yes, Jasmine," he said as he hung up the phone and ignored Jack's hasty good-bye. "By tomorrow, you'll be back to eating all the glowing food you can handle, my dear."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sort of late update, I know. The last week or so has been kind of rough between starting a new job, getting robbed, and being sick, and I haven't had much time to focus on my writing because of it. But it's here, at last, hastily edited thought it may be, so . . . victory, I suppose?**

**As a note, I originally thought about splitting this chapter into two separate ones, especially since the first half of the part with Vlad is a little slow, but in the end I think that they worked out okay together. Not great, but okay, lol. And remember, FBPI is synonymous with the Guys in White in this fic. I kind of feel like they'd have a real name, y'know, and a boring one at that . . . And I am going for a little more realism in this than the show had. Not much, but a bit more.**

**Anyway, as always, thanks to everyone who's reviewed thus far (as well as those of you who have alerted and favorited this story). It seriously means a lot to me, and I'd definitely appreciate getting any feedback you might have after this chapter as well since I didn't go over it as carefully as I normally do. So please, if you have a minute, drop me a review, 'kay?**

**'til next time!  
><strong>


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